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Police at media centre, West Indies cancel press meet

Kolkata, Nov 4 IANS | 1 year ago

Two days ahead of their Test match with India at the Eden Gardens, the visiting West Indies team was Monday forced to cancel a scheduled media conference as the police had taken over the media centre to discuss security details.

Apart from the match, there were two other events in the city for which the police needed to plan security arrangements.

The West Indies team management had informed the large contingent of media personnel from various parts of the country and abroad that they would hold the interaction at 1.30 p.m., before their practice.

Dashing opener Chris Gayle, who was to have addressed the media, left after waiting for a substantial time when the media centre continued to be occupied by the security personnel.

Kolkata Police top brass, who during the day did the final inspection of the venue ahead of the Nov 6-10 Test match, later moved to the media centre to hold the security meeting which was attended by Police Commissioner Surojit Kar Purakayastha.

Besides the cricket match, arrangements for the Chhath puja festival which begins Nov 6, and the Nov 10-17 Kolkata International Film Festival were also deliberated upon at the meeting.

CAB treasurer Biswarup Dey said the meeting was slated to be held in another part of the stadium. "But we had no information about the shifting of the venue."

On the other hand, Purakayastha justified the shifting to the media: "We shifted the venue because we thought it was convenient."

CAB joint secretary Subir Ganguly claimed that the West Indies team had not intimated the association about the media meet till 3 p.m. "At 3 p.m., they told us. We told them that the media centre would be available at 4.30 p.m., but they left before that."